An Israeli official told Aviation Week "They are in the Gaza Strip. I don't know in what numbers. They are also in Lebanon."

Though the Grinch is one of the most sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons in the world, AvWeek notes that Western forces have developed ways to neutralize them in helicopters like the Apache even without infrared countermeasures.

What they leave unsaid is that the 11,000 foot range of the SA-24 could handily pick off a civilian airliner with its heat seeking missiles.

The Grinch has made the news before. In 2003, British national Hemant Lakhani was arrested for trying to bring the rockets to the U.S. to use against Air Force One or a civilian airliner.